38 Things PR Professionals Wish they Could Get Senior Management to Understand about Corporate Communications

Open-ended questions can sometimes be the most insightful part of a good survey.

Often the answers to such questions provide nuance, context and even lead to new questions. More than once I’ve analyzed survey results for a client and wound up finding the perfect report title in the open-ended commentary.

As such, the 2018 JOTW Communications Survey, which was conducted in partnership with Ned’s Job of the Week, also included an open-ended question at the end of the survey. Of the 155 respondents, more than 120 took the time to write in answers this post is designed to share some of them that stood out.

The question we asked was as follows: “What is one thing you wish you could get senior leaders or senior management to understand about communications that you don’t think they understand today?”

The word cloud nearby analyzes all the comments – the larger the word, the more often it was used. In addition, below is a representative sample of their answers. How many can you identify with?

1) “That one tactic isn’t king. It’s not just about content, or search, or conferences, or advertising, or a webinar. It’s all those combined, and each is valuable and necessary.”

2) “Budget and staffing needs to meet strategic plan goals.”

3) “Thought leadership can’t be outsourced. It needs to be authentic.”

4) “I wish more would get how much more audiences appreciate communications than marketing. Buyers are looking for great marketing when they’re deciding what they need to meet their needs.”

5) “That the cost of a well-run communications program is not measured the same way as their sales or business development programs.”

6) “That it plays a critical role across the organization – like no other function; key to sales, marketing, handling crises or public perception, motivating employees, communicating mission, vision and values to all stakeholders, including employees, customers, stockholders. So, ALL messaging needs to be consistent, one voice: Communications is the core of a thriving organization.”

7) “It’s a foundational necessity. So many think of communications as a ‘nice to have’, but it supports so many other functions and strategies of an organization.”

8) “The communications team must be thought of as collaborators in developing products and services, not just the ones charged with selling them.”

9) “That reporters don’t write corporate profiles, they cover NEWS.”

10) “Some of the efforts are long-tail – don’t expect coverage every time you talk to a reporter.”

16) “That one tactic isn’t king. It’s not just about content, or search, or conferences, or advertising, or a webinar, etc. It’s all of those combined, and each is valuable and necessary.”

17) “The overall importance of consistent messaging, particularly when it comes to crisis and strategic communications, and not to play it as it comes.”

18) “Senior leaders are more comfortable with advertising – it is something they can control and with sponsored content, can push a message out via social media. We can pitch with social media, but actual editorial coverage is not necessarily predictable, not is the tone or content angle.”

About Sword and the Script Media, LLC

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Sword and the Script Media, LLC is veteran-owned public relations agency immersed in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. We focus on building consistent, sustainable, repeatable, and process-driven programs for PR, content marketing and social media. A defining difference comes down to our approach – that marketing ought to have utility. This is because marketing that helps, sells better than marketing that hypes.